Sports of The Times;Ben Wright Has 4 Years To Get It

THE wages of stonewalling are bountiful. Ben Wright so vigorously denied making nasty remarks about women's golf last spring that CBS rewarded him with a new four-year contract.

Yesterday, CBS announced that Wright would not be working for the duration of his contract.

Until yesterday, officials at CBS had shrugged off reports published last May in The News Journal of Wilmington, Del., that Wright had said: "Let's face facts here. Lesbians in the sport hurts women's golf. When it gets to the corporate level, that's not going to fly. They're going to a butch game, and that furthers the bad image of the game."

Did Wright's apparent beliefs affect what he said on the air? How could they not?

The so-called bad image exists at least in the sniggering mind of Ben Wright, age 63, who speculated about women's sexuality rather than deal with them as athletes, performers, competitors, equals.

"I look at it as an over-45 thing," said Donna Lopiano, the executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation. "They were trained to devalue women in sports, but the younger generation has competed against women, dated female athletes, grew up thinking their sisters, their daughters, could be a doctor or a lawyer. It's changing."

Women's golf is doing fine, according to Jim Ritts, the new commissioner of the Ladies Professional Golf Association, who has been on the job for all of eight days.

"It took far too long, but CBS did the right thing," Ritts said yesterday by car phone as he drove to Orlando, Fla., for the first tournament of the season. "For six to eight months, the focus has been taken away from what's important. If there is any image problem, it has not affected our sponsorship."

He spoke of a 39-event, $26 million tour with "blue-chip" sponsors like McDonald's, J. C. Penney, Oldsmobile, State Farm Insurance, Wendy's, Diners Club and Chrysler-Plymouth and other major companies.

Ritts would not judge what Wright said, or did not say. "Ben Wright will no longer be a distraction," he said.

It is worth noting how long it took CBS to address the issue. Last May, David Kenin, president of CBS Sports, said he was "convinced that the offensive statements attributed to Mr. Wright were not made."

The response was a direct slap at the Wilmington newspaper and its reporter, Valerie Helmbreck. Why did CBS change its stance? Last December, Sports Illustrated reported that Dan Jenkins, a writer who knows the territory, had heard Wright privately admit the offensive quotes. But Jenkins later said that Wright's admission may have been made in jest. The article also quoted a caddie as saying he had heard Wright saying some of the disputed remarks to Helmbreck.

Apparently, CBS was embarrassed by Wright's trying to label Helmbreck as possibly a lesbian, or a divorced mother, or both. No doubt, the new CBS owners from Westinghouse will be comfortable about mailing Wright his checks for the next four years. And David Letterman will be kind.

CBS needed to get rid of the distraction. It doesn't have all that many sports events these days, and it has always been proud of its dignified coverage of the Masters. Wright's British accent and occasional pithy remarks were in contrast to the gushing of American-born commentators. Unfortunately, he babbled too long in the press tent.

Yesterday, Wright issued a rather ambiguous statement: "Despite the fact that I have been widely misquoted, there is no doubt that I have been guilty of making some insensitive remarks," he said. "And it is to the victims of my insensitivity that I address these profound apologies.

He apologized to CBS, and he was "regretful" if the L.P.G.A. has "been in any way injured by remarks attributed to me."

Then he added: "Thirdly, and most importantly, I extend to Ms. Valerie Helmbreck my sincere regret for any hurt she may have experienced. To conclude, I apologize most sincerely to all the people and organizations mentioned above. I shall be more thoughtful and, I hope, more sensitive in the future."

The real question is whether networks -- and newspapers -- will continue to support the old-boy network that seems to have an obsession about women's sexual orientation.

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A version of this article appears in print on January 10, 1996, on page B00009 of the National edition with the headline: Sports of The Times;Ben Wright Has 4 Years To Get It. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe